September 17, 2008

Trivia with a message

The woman whom Barack Obama is crediting for organizing the Barbra Streisand fundraiser held last night in Hollywood is also partially responsible for one of the greater banking collapses in American history. The woman, Penny Pritzker, Obama's national finance chair and who also served as finance chair for Obama's Senate run - and supported him during his time in the Illinois state legislature, was the half owner of Superior Bank, which was shut down in 2001 by the FDIC after it had lost nearly all of its more than $2 billion of assets on bad loans to high-risk borrowers.

Not suprisingly, Pritzker has avoided media attention over the past week as reporters covering the Obama campaign sought comment on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle.